ST. PETERSBURG (WDAE) -- Yonny Chirinos allowed four runs while not getting out of the sixth inning, and Marwin Gonzalez and Byron Buxton each homered as the Tampa Bay Rays dropped their second straight to the Minnesota Twins 6-2 Saturday at Tropicana Field.
Tampa Bay jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second as Nate Lowe singled, moved to third on an infield single by Willy Adames coupled with an error by Jonathan Schoop, and scoring on a single from Travis d'Arnaud. But Yonny Chirinos could not get the shutdown inning in the third, as Jorge Polanco followed a Jason Castro single and a Max Kepler walk with an RBI double, and Gonzalez doubled in Kepler with another double to give the Twins the lead for good.
From there, the Twins began to nickel-and-dime the Tampa Bay pitching staff, scoring single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Gonzalez's solo home run in the fifth off Chirinos (6-2) made it 4-1, and Buxton's blast an inning later off reliever Hunter Wood pushed Minnesota's advantage to 5-1.
After Miguel Sano's RBI double in the sevent game the Twins their sixth run of the game, Tampa Bay was able to get one run back thanks to Christian Arroyo's first home run of 2019 at the big league level, but could get no closer.
The loss drops the Rays back to 14 games over .500 and 2 1/2 games behind New York for the lead in the American League East.
SUNDAY'S MATCHUP
Tampa Bay Rays (35-21) vs. Minnesota Twins (39-18), 1:10 pm first pitch. Coverage on WDAE begins at 11:00 am with The Inside Pitch.
Rays starter: LHP Ryan Yarbrough (4-1, 5.53 ERA)
Twins starter: RHP Jake Odorizzi (7-2, 2.16 ERA)